Monthly Archives: April 2013

Last week the Missouri House approved HB436, the 2nd amendment preservation act, by a strong veto-proof majority. The bill now goes to the senate, where that kind of majority is absolutely essential as well. We cannot allow Nixon the power to stop this historic legislation.

HB436 would nullify virtually every federal gun control measure on the books – past, present and future. Please read on to learn more and take action right now to support the Constitution and your right to keep and bear arms!

WHAT’S NEXT? (via mofirst.org)

Monday, April 22 – First Read in the Senate. HB 436 is formally introduced to the Senate.

Tuesday, April 23 – Second Read in the Senate. After this, at the pleasure of the President pro tem of the Senate, Tom Dempsey, the bill will be assigned to (probably) the General Laws Committee. Sen. Dempsey can choose to expedite this process, or delay. If he chooses to, the bill will be assigned that same day.

The chair of the General Laws Committee, Sen. Brian Nieves, must then schedule a hearing. Potentially, if he wants to bad enough, that hearing can be as soon as 24 hours after the bill is assigned to his committee. Sen. Nieves has committed to passing HB 436 out of his committee the same day he holds the hearing. His own SB 325, the Senate version of HB 436, has already been through the committee process, so the trail has been blazed.

After the Senate hearing, the bill is back in the pro tem, Sen. Tom Dempsey’s hands. He can either promptly place it on the Senate calendar for the entire Senate to consider, or he can delay the bill.

Once on the calendar, it’s up to the Majority Floor Leader, Sen. Ron Richard, to make time for debate and “perfection” before the whole Senate. At this time, amendments can be offered and opponents can filibuster the bill, so Ron’s support will be key — he needs to be willing to give it all the time needed to wear out any filibuster.

After perfection, no more amendments are allowed. It’s, again, up to floor leader Ron Richard to allow it the time to overcome another potential filibuster.

Once the Senate passes the bill, if there are any changes, it will have to go back to the House for another up or down vote.

After the House votes again, the bill will be delivered to the Governor to sign, veto, or do nothing, in which case it becomes law automatically.

If he vetoes it and there’s more than 15 days left in the session, the legislature can attempt to override his veto before May 17th. If there’s less than 15 days, it will have to wait for the standard September veto session.

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HB357, The Second Amendment Preservation Act to nullify federal gun laws in the State of Pennsylvania, needs your help to move forward.

The bill has been assigned to the House Judiciary Committee. Bill sponsor, Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, has said that the bill needs 102 sponsors to get out of committee on to the full House for a vote. It currently has 75 sponsors.

The Tenth Amendment Center requests your immediate help by contacting your state senator to express your support for this legislation. We urge you to CALL and EMAIL. Strongly, but respectfully, inform your representative that you are extremely concerned with federal infringements on the right to keep bear arms – and that you want them to SPONSOR HB357

ACTION ITEMS:

1. Please contact your state representative. First check the link for the following representatives who are co-sponsors to the bill. The most updated list of cosponsors are on the website to House Bill 357 can be found here. If your representative is not listed, please contact them and ask them to cosponsor HB357. If they are, thank them for supporting the bill and encourage them to stand strong.

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I was several blocks away at a bar when the bombs exploded, having finished my fourth Boston Marathon about an hour earlier. I was fatigued but enjoying the table fellowship of my fellow runners, telling stories, drinking Guinness and thinking all was right in the world. The bombs, by all accounts cowardly planted by two Chechen brothers, tore through that serenity and replaced it with tears, anger and fear.

Two days have now passed since the brothers were neutralized, one dead, the other hospitalized in serious condition. The media gave us a morbidly fascinating window to the action, a real life Running Man, where the bad guys were pursued in house-to-house searches with military precision courtesy of the billions in tax dollars that perfected the security-surveillance state we call America. Michel Foucalt was presciently right; we are living in a Panopticon.

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In Louisiana, two bills to protect your right to keep and bear arms against attacks by the federal government are moving forward. Please read on and take the action steps below this introduction to support the 2nd Amendment today! Votes are scheduled in the state house very soon – so your support is needed right now!

House Bill 5, the Second Amendment Preservation Act, a bill to prohibit the enforcement of any federal law in the state of Louisiana which attempts to either ban the ownership or possession of certain types of firearms, or impose registration requirements for such firearms, has passed committee 9-6. This bill is scheduled for a full House floor vote on April 23rd. Please contact your representative and tell him or her to vote YES on HB5. (details below)

House Bill 45, the Louisiana Manufactured Firearms and Ammunition Act, a bill to protect privately owned firearms and manufacturers of firearms passed the Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice with a vote of 10-1. This bill has been sent to the Committee on Appropriations. Please contact the committee and tell them to vote YES on HB45 so a state can create it’s own office that would regulate intrastate firearms manufacturing.

ACTION ITEMS for HB5

1. Contact your Representative. Strongly, but respectfully, urge him or her to vote YES on HB5. The right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

This is one area in which Colorado could take a lesson from our sister state to the north, Montana.

Montana has a long history of what used to be “prairie socialism” and often has made bad fiscal decisions. But on this issue Montanans got it right.

I was in the legislative galleries in Helena last Friday, when the state stepped back from the brink.

Democrats and some Republicans were pushing for the state to join the Medicaid expansion, enticed by “free federal money.” So they amended a bill designed to keep the state free from the expansion to one chaining the state tothe expansion.

The rules of the state house of representatives generally provide that when the purpose of a bill is changed, it should go back to committee for review. So in a courageous move guaranteed to irritate the state’s “opinion leaders,” Speaker of the House Mark Blasdel decided to just that.

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On Wednesday, April 17, 2013, the White House drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, announced his recognition of the nullification movement. “No state, no executive can nullify a statute that has been passed by Congress,” he said. As reported by RawStory – and many other sources – Kerlikowske made this statement at the beginning of his speech to the National Press Club in an effort to say that federal laws on marijuana will prevail regardless of state-level efforts to legalize.

But, Facts on the ground show that the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy is living some kind of lala land. Gil, I’ve got news for you. They states already ARE nullifying.

Fact: 18 states have already legalized marijuana, 16 for medical purposes only with Washington State and Colorado going the next step, full legalization.

Fact: Gil wouldn’t be wasting his time talking about how “states can’t” do this if it wasn’t having an effect.

Fact: Without state and local law enforcement cooperation, the feds are fighting a losing battle.

It’s not a matter of IF the states will fully and completely nullify the unconstitutional federal prohibition on marijuana. It’s only a matter of when.

And to back it up even further, alcohol prohibition came crumbling down by a similar process. By 1928, 28 states had stopped funding for alcohol prohibition enforcement and local police were sporadic in their enforcement efforts. In a 1925 address to Congress, Maryland’s Senator Bruce stated, “national prohibition went into legal effect upward of six years ago, but it can be truly said that, except to a highly qualified extent, it has never gone into practical effect at all.”

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Representative Jim Morse introduced HB5 this year in response to the newly sought “assault weapons” ban from Diane Feinstein and other threat to prohibit “weapons of war” from the White House Administration.

Any federal law, rule, regulation, or executive order adopted or enacted on or after January 1, 2013, shall be unenforceable within the borders of the state of Louisiana if the law, rule, regulation, or executive order attempts to do any of the following:

(1) Ban or restrict the ownership or possession of a semi-automatic firearm, or any magazine, accessory, or ammunition for a semi-automatic firearm, as defined by federal law.

(2) Require that any semi-automatic firearm, magazine, accessory, or ammunition for a semi-automatic firearm be registered in any manner. The provisions of this Section shall only apply to semi-automatic firearms, magazines, accessories, and ammunition for such firearms which are owned or possessed within the state of Louisiana and remain exclusively within the borders of the state of Louisiana.”

The local and state police are prohibited from enforcing any federal law in violation.

“It shall be unlawful for any official, agent, or employee of the United States government to enforce or attempt to enforce a federal law, rule, regulation, or executive order which is unenforceable”

This law provides that,

“Whoever violates the provisions of this Section shall be fined not more than five thousand dollars, imprisoned with or without hard labor for not more than two years, or both.

The office of the attorney general of the state of Louisiana shall defend any Louisiana citizen who is charged with possession or ownership of a semi-automatic firearm, magazine, accessory, or ammunition for such firearm in violation of any federal law, rule, regulation, or executive order which is unenforceable”

This bill passed the House Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice with a vote of 8-6. This bill now heads to the floor for a vote on April 23. In an article from The Advocate, Jim Morris said, “This is not only a timely bill, but proper bill to bring.”

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On April 9th, the California Assembly Public Safety Committee voted unanimously in favor of Assembly Bill 351 (AB351), the California Liberty Preservation Act. The bill has now been assigned to the Assembly Committee on Appropriations with a hearing and vote scheduled for May 15, 2013.

Introduced by Republican Assemblymember Tim Donnelly, AB351 is a strong stand against “indefinite detention” as supposedly authorized by the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2012. It declares such federal power to be unconstitutional and also requires the entire state to refuse to enforce or assist its implementation. A broad coalition officially supported the legislation and moved the normally partisan, and strongly democratic, committee to support the republican-introduced legislation.

The appropriations committee is going to be an even tougher path, but an endless stream of strong, but respectful phone calls to committee members in favors is likely to give the bill a chance as passing.

ACTION ITEMS for California

1. CALL the chair of the Appropriations Committee. Thank him for scheduling a hearing on AB351, and politely encourage him to vote YES on AB351.

Mike Gatto (916) 319-2043

2. CALL all the other members of the Appropriations Committee. Strongly, but respectfully, urge each of them to vote YES on AB351. Let them know you want a vote on PRINCIPLE and not party.

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By a vote of 9-1, Maine Representatives in the Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee approved LD525 (Industrial Hemp) which allows hemp cultivation in the state of Maine, effectively nullifying unconstitutional federal acts which ban the same.

Representative Harvell introduced the legislation. Under current Maine law, hemp is legal for certain purposes, though the law mandates that an individual can’t receive a license to grow until federal law changes. Harvell’s bill removes the requirements that an applicant for an initial license to grow industrial hemp for commercial purposes must submit a set of the applicant’s fingerprints and file with the Commissioner of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry documentation indicating that the seeds planted were a type and variety of hemp approved by the commissioner and also repeals the provision that licensure is contingent upon action by the Federal Government.

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A bill which would restrict drone spying to the point of near extinction passed the Illinois State Senate by a vote of 52-1 on Thursday.

If signed into law, SB1587 would prohibit law enforcement angencies from using unmanned drones to gather evidence or other information without a warrant. It reads, in part: “A law enforcement agency may not use a drone to gather evidence or other information.”

The act does leave the door open for some drone use, but is very restrictive about what could be authorized. It’s prime exception allows for the use of drones “to counter a high risk of a terrorist attack by a specific individual or organization if the United States Secretary of Homeland Security determines that credible intelligence indicates that there is such a risk.”

In addition, the bill would permit law enforcement agencies to use drones when attempting to locate a missing person as long as that flight was “not also undertaking a criminal investigation.” And it would allow a drone to be used to review a crime scene and take traffic crash scene photography. Any information gathered by a drone would have to be destroyed within 30 days unless the information is proven to contain evidence of criminal activity or is relevant to a trial or investigation.